Research description

Hand deformities

Approximately 50 of the 27,000 children born each year in Stockholm have a hand deformity.

Since hand deformities are so rare there is little knowledge in the area in society as a whole but also in the health care. Nearly all children with hand deformities in Stockholm and Gotland are transferred to The Hand Surgery Section at Södersjukhuset which creates a unique possibility to study this rare event in a large population.

Hand surgery can sometimes effect the growth of the arm negatively and the research group are investigating children and adults with radial dysplasia with the aim of improving current operation methods. The research is performed in collaboration with research groups at Lund University, Uppsala University and Texas South Western University.

The research group also focuses on genetic causes of hand deformities. In 18% of the cases there is a relative with a hand deformity and 23% of the cases the afflicted also has a associated deformity somewhere else on the body. This suggests that there is a genetic component in the development of hand deformities. The research group collaborates with Institute for Human Genetics, University of California San Francisco and NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford.